The principles of fulfillment of obligations play a fundamental role in the system of law of obligations of Russia. They are the basis for all legal relations arising both from contracts and from harm through tort. The principles are basic provisions that cannot be overlooked when drawing up a civil law contract.
Lawyers, as a rule, distinguish four principles. This is the principle of proper performance of obligations, real performance, integrity and cooperation. Each of these principles will be described in more detail below. The disclosure of the content of the principles in the article was made based on both the current legislation and the draft Civil Law.
The concept and principles of fulfillment of obligations are enshrined in section 3 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Directly the execution of various types of obligations is devoted to chapter 22 of the Civil Code.
The law prescribes to fulfill the obligation of the contract directly to the person specified in the contract. Perhaps this will be the other side of the contract if the agreement is concluded in favor of its participants. But there are also cases where the obligation should be performed in favor of another person other than the person who is the second party to the contract. Fulfillment of the obligation to the proper person at a specific time determined by the agreement at a specific place determined by the agreement - this is the fulfillment of the terms of the contract in an appropriate manner. The draft amendment to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides that the obligation must be fulfilled taking into account the customs of business turnover if the parties do not agree on specific and unambiguous conditions for its implementation.
Actual fulfillment of an obligation by a party to a transaction means the implementation of any specific actions (or inaction, if such behavior of the person is just foreseen as the proper and necessary execution of the contract by the parties themselves). The will of the person to fulfill the obligation must be externally shown and understood by the counterparty. Will alone is not enough: expression of will is an integral component of this principle.
The principles of fulfillment of an obligation correlate with the general principles of private law, among which the principle of good faith holds a special place. Honesty of participants in legal relations is presumed. However, if the obligation is not fulfilled or is not fully fulfilled, then the absence of guilt, that is, the presence of good faith, the party that has not actually performed the appropriate actions must prove. The principle of good faith and the presumption of guilt in civil circulation balance each other's strength. The development of the principle of good faith entirely depends on the level of public justice and the level of business culture in society.
Collaboration in the performance of a specific obligation allows achieving the goal of a civil law agreement faster. Cooperation should not be confused with a compromise: with a compromise, each of the parties incurs insignificant losses for the joint achievement of the goal, and with cooperation the position of both parties becomes more advantageous than before. None of the parties sacrifices their own interests. The principles of fulfillment of obligations contribute to increasing the efficiency of civil law turnover, and it is the cooperation of counterparties that allows them to achieve the best results in the framework of contractual relations.
Obligations can be shared or joint. In case of shared obligation, each debtor fulfills the obligation only in the established part. The creditor does not have the right to demand from the debtor to fulfill the share of another debtor. If the agreement or the text of the law establishes joint performance of an obligation, the creditor shall be entitled to force any of the debtors to fulfill such an obligation to the extent specified by the creditor.